Three Important Things
by AZ1087653
Summary: "I did three important things today, Ritsuka." Soubi stated, breaking the silence further.   "Okay?" Ritsuka wondered if they were school, painting, and putting up with Kio. When Soubi made no move to answer he continued. "And?"


I saw a computer wallpaper with the phrase, "I did three important things today…" and thought of Soubi and his relationship with Ritsuka when I read the words. I then had to write this or it would have bothered me tonight when I fall asleep.

Chronologically this takes place after volume 9, when they have returned home. There are no spoilers, save for the prior sentence, kind of.

I own nothing. Suing me will earn you a smile and a pat on the head.

/GG/

Three Important Things

All of the noises in the area were like a plague on the boy's senses. He could hear the wind-chimes from next door tinkling in the wind. There were a few dogs barking up the way creating a distorted harmony that carried on the wind and caused the furry ears on his head to twitch occasionally. Even the radio of the teen across the way added to the music that was the noise that kept Ritsuka from completing his English homework.

In slight annoyance he tapped his pen against his desk, another noise added to the mix. He could feel his pen keeping time with the loud and angry sounds of radio. Of course it would have been easy to shut out a little of the noise, but the tween had started keeping his doors open incase Soubi decided to show up with no forewarning.

Soubi. That name caused him to cringe slightly. Not because of fear just from confusion and more confusion. The man was a mystery even with all of the adventures the two had been on. At times it felt like one of those pairs in stories; Batman and Robin, Robin Hood and Little John, Holmes and Watson…Soubi and Ritsuka. Then again, his and the older man's name in a combination like that didn't sound near as grand as the aforementioned ideas.

He chuckled slightly at Yuiko talking about how their "bromance" was always on her mind and that she wanted to mash their names to come up with one name to call the two. Ritsuka drew the line and told her that in no uncertain terms was she to come up with a mash-up of his and Soubi's names. One, it was ridiculous. Two, it was embarrassing. Three, they were two separate people not one entity; something he had been trying to instill in Soubi for months.

Ritsuka decided to turn back to his homework since he was struggling with present perfect tense; why languages had to be so difficult was beyond him. Yes, it was good to have so many ways to communicate, but all of these new ways just made it all that more difficult to communicate with foreigners. Ritsuka hadn't had a chance to speak to a foreigner yet since the new native English teacher hadn't been assigned to his school yet, but there was supposed to be one in the next month or two, so he wanted to be ready.

Time wasn't on his side for studying though as he heard his curtain ruffle and felt the older man steal into the room and sit at the foot of his bed. Soubi had shown up, effectively stopping any sort of studying from occurring in the near future. Even if he tried to continue the fact that the man was in his room was enough to make his brain forget about English and focus on other things.

For a few moments there was silence in the room that Ritsuka found comfortable. The silence was quickly extinguished as Soubi lit a cigarette casting an eerie glow on his face that reflected off his glasses. The room wasn't particularly dark since the desk light was on, but it caused a shiver to crawl up Ritsuka's spine.

"Are you cold, Ritsuka?" Soubi asked before putting the cigarette back in his mouth.

The younger of the two took note on how Soubi always accentuated his name to make sure it was known that no matter what he was the subject of every sentence.

"Not particularly." He answered as the air became pungent with the smell of tobacco with a hint of paint in its wake.

The older of the two patted the floor next to him, calling the young cat-boy to his side. Ritsuka stood up and walked over and sat next to Soubi with his knees tucked up under his chin. He rested his arms on his knees and his head on his hands as he looked at his fighter.

His fighter…should he even refer to this lost soul as his. Soubi shouldn't be anybody's but the man before him had been so broken as a boy he didn't know anything more. Even though Ritsuka had only just turned 12 he was far more mature than the man who sat next to him.

"I did three important things today, Ritsuka." Soubi stated, breaking the silence further.

"Okay?" Ritsuka wondered if they were school, painting, and putting up with Kio. When Soubi made no move to answer he continued. "And?"

"Is that an order?" Soubi asked as his eyes pierced Ritsuka's with their solitude.

"No, that isn't an order, it's just a way to continue a conversation."

Soubi took a drag of his cigarette and blew a long line of the deadly smoke away from Ritsuka's face.

"I missed you." He finally said.

Ritsuka raised his eyebrows. "You missed me?"

"Yes." Soubi deadpanned.

"That's one of the things you did?" This man always said the weirdest things.

"That is one of the things I did today. I missed you."

"Missing me is hardly a productive way to spend the day. You could have painted and that would have been productive."

Soubi stood up and flicked his cigarette butt out the window and looked at the small boy sitting on the ground in front of the bed. He knelt in front of Ritsuka, who started to blush at the proximity of the older man's face to his.

"I did paint today, Ritsuka. I said important things, and painting wasn't important, missing you was."

This caused the boy to blush even more and Soubi held in a chuckle at how he was making his young master uncomfortable. The poor boy. Even with all of the issues in Soubi's past he knew Ritsuka lacked the love he deserved. Even though Seimei was a bastard, he had wanted the young boy to have that love he so rightly deserved.

"My missing you is not a reason to blush, Ritsuka." This time he was rewarded with a squirm and a slight shove, causing the older of the two to fall to his posterior.

"What else was important?" Ritsuka asked, hoping to become a secondary thought to the remaining important things Soubi had done that day.

"I missed you." Soubi replied.

Ritsuka looked his fighter in the eyes with morbid curiosity. "You already said that."

"No, I said I missed you, but I also missed you."

"They are the same thing." Ritsuka spit with slight exasperation.

"It depends on the person who does the missing."

Ritsuka rolled his eyes and tried to sit up on his bed; a fruitless endeavor as Soubi pulled the young man into his lap and hugged him. He didn't even try to squirm out of the older man's arms because that would only make the grasp tighter. Soubi's hugs mirrored their relationship. There was no point to trying to separate himself because he knew that the more he pulled away the more Soubi held tight.

"Then let me guess," He said with an air of annoyance. "The third important thing you did today was miss me, right?"

Ritsuka felt a kiss on the top of his head, right between the cat ears.

"You are right my Ritsuka, I missed you." The fighter breathed, taking in a breath of the scent that was Ritsuka.

The boy shook his head and leaned back into the fold between Soubi's chest and his arm. He didn't completely understand their relationship, or what the older man thought. He knew that despite being ordered by his brother the fighter cared about him in a way that was more than as a friend or family member. The memory of Soubi possibly taking his ears made him shiver, though he wasn't sure if that was nerves of trepidation or curiosity or even excitement. They would cross that bridge much later, much, much later.

For now he was comfortable with their relationship as kindred spirits and the "bromance" Yuiko always giggled about.

"I love you, Ritsuka."

Soubi's words broke him out of his thoughts. The boy leaned in and hugged the older man. He placed a small kiss on the bandages covering Soubi's wounds.

"I guess I did something important today too Soubi," He said calmly. "I missed you too."


End file.
